A hydrogel is a material maintained in a moist state, and fields of application thereof have tended to be diversified into areas such as dressings for wounds, contact lenses, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics delivery media, prostheses, and waste water treating agents. Hydrogel is a material having a three-dimensional hydrophilic polymer network structure including purified water as a dispersion medium, and is highly absorbent, able to absorb large amounts of water, thus having flexibility like that of natural tissue.
Further, the hydrogel may further have novel functions such as controlled release, in which delivery of a material contained therein can be control and susceptibility to expansion and contraction due to stimulation by a pH level, temperature, an electromagnetic field, and light. The hydrogel having the aforementioned characteristics has a structure that is similar to that of a cytosol of a human body, inactive biocompatibility, elasticity like rubber, excellent permeation of oxygen and nutrients, and is thus extensively used in pharmaceutical industrial fields as well as in the cosmetics and biomedical fields.
Recently, a mask pack having an improved humectation, nutrient supplying properties, or dead skin cell removal effects has been developed by using elasticity, close contact properties with skin, and the soft sense of touch of hydrogel.
Non-woven fabrics or cotton are used as a base in mask packs in order to maintain a form thereof, and particularly, non-woven fabrics have a lack of directionality, due to tangled fibers thereof, to thus prevent edges of non-woven fabrics from being fluidized, and accordingly, non-woven fabrics are used extensively as mask pack bases.
However, as described above, since non-woven fabrics are manufactured through a chemical process, skin troubles may occur when a mask pack including non-woven fabrics in the base thereof is applied to the skin of a user; moreover, discarded non-woven fabrics are not easily decomposed in nature, thus causing environmental pollution. Further, there are limitations on the use of cotton in the bases of mask packs, in that manufacturing costs may be increased.
Moreover, mask packs including the non-woven fabrics or cotton as the base is easily dried and has a poor close contact property to skin.
Accordingly, there is demand for the development of a mask pack having no adverse affects on users' skin and excellent wearability. However, while efforts have been made to improve functionality, according to the components contained in mask packs, the base compositions of mask packs have not been developed.
Particularly, hydrogel immersed in cosmetics or pharmaceuticals has not used as the base for the mask pack until now.